Physical description

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Australian White Ibises are medium-sized aquatic birds with an
all-white plumage.
Only the head, with the very long, curved bill, and back of the
neck are black (except for a few pink skin patches). The legs
and feet are pinkish-grey. During the
breeding season Australian White Ibises have black filamentary
inner secondary plumes that show clearly on their rumps.
The tips of the underwing primaries are black; the underwings
show a long, narrow red stripe of naked skin. The uppertail is
slightly yellowish.
Juveniles have a grey head and shorter bill and adults.

Australian White Ibises often look dirty, with a brownish tint
to their plumage.

Australian White Ibises are found over large parts of the Australian
continent, with the exception of
the most arid parts of the interior of the continent, i.e. the eastern
two thirds of WA, the western half of SA and the southern half
of the NT. In other parts of the semi-arid interior and the
western half of WA they are present only when there is
sufficient surface water, normally after major rainfall events.
They can also be found along the east coast of Tasmania.

Sightings

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A significant number of Australian White Ibises are permanent residents
in the Narrabri region, in wet, moist or muddy areas (especially at
the local rubbish tip).

After significant rainfall in the area in September 2008, hundreds of
Australian White Ibises were camped around the rubbish tip (and stayed there). Only a
few Straw-necked Ibises
joined them there.On the other hand, Straw-necked Ibises are seen regularly
exploring the Narrabri area, whereas Australian White Ibises tend to
stay near the tip and
Narrabri Lake (between which they commute).
There is a significant colony of Australian White Ibises that breed
in trees on a small island in Narrabri Lake.

Australian White Ibises were also sighted on a trip to the East of the
Great Dividing Range, in the area from Armidale to Dorrigo. Seen in
various locations along the NSW coast, from the Clarence River downs,
via Hat Head and Urunga, up to Iluka, northern NSW. Also spotted on
the Gold Coast, QLD, by J. Ross-Taylor, e.g. in June 2014. Other
contributors report their presence farther North along the Australian
East coast.

In August 2014 we found good numbers of Australian White Ibises in
various locations in and around Darwin, NT.

J. Greaves reports spotting Australian White Ibises regularly in WA,
e.g. in Albany and in and around Perth.

Twitcher's tip

Here an example why one should never take things for granted while
bird-watching: In October 2011 three birds flew over our property.
The photo below shows two of them - identification as Australian
White Ibis is easy.

Australian White Ibis seen from underneath
[Eulah Creek, NSW, October 2011]

A second photo shows the remaining third bird and only closer
inspection later, on the computer, showed that it had slightly
different features...

Breeding information

Breeding season: Aug - Dec

Eggs: 2 - 5

Incubation period: 20 - 23 days

Fledging age: ca. 49 days

The breeding season depends significantly on geographical
latitude. In the tropical north Australian White Ibises breed Feb - May.
Given the right conditions, Australian White Ibises can breed
any time of the year. They breed in tightly packed colonies,
together with other aquatic birds.

Nest

"bungobittah", "malunna"
= Nest [Aboriginal]

Type: Basket

Material: Sticks, lined with leaves

Height above ground: 0 - 20 m

Australian White Ibises can nest in trees or just above water level,
e.g. on lignum.
They often nest in loose colonies, together with other aquatic species.

Australian White Ibises are the number 1 cause of bird strikes around
airports, which is the reason why breeding colonies as shown below
are often destroyed or at least reduced if found near major airports.

Small Australian White Ibis colony at the Gold Coast (photo courtesy
of A. Ross-Taylor)
[Carrara, Gold Coast, QLD, November 2014]

Here a nest with three juvenile Australian White Ibises in it, ready to
leave any time
[Narrabri Lake, NSW, October 2010]

After seeing Australian White Ibises nesting in trees for many years,
here the first nest in reeds - this indicates that the birds expect
the lake not to dry up during the nesting season
[Narrabri Lake, NSW, August 2012]

These pages are largely based on our own observations and those of our
contributors. The structure of these bird pages is explained HERE. For more salient facts on any bird species
please refer to a field guide.

Disclaimer:Comments are always welcome. We give no guarantee
that the information presented on these pages is always correct or
up-to-date. External links are marked as such and we take no
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Last updated: 31 Mar. 2015.